"The Scarecrow World Tour" (2008)[edit]

After the release of the The Scarecrow, Tobias Sammet was invited to perform a headlining show at Wacken Open Air, an offer that producer/guitarist Sascha Paeth convinced him to accept. That led to 13 shows between July 5 and August 13. The shows at Masters of Rock and Wacken Open Air were recorded and the live DVDThe Flying Opera, based on the footage, was released in March 2011.

"The Metal Opera Comes to Town Tour" (2010–11)[edit]

A 12 show tour of Europe, South America and Asia took place during December 2010, with the exception of one concert at the Wacken Open Air festival in August 2011. The concerts lasted for almost three hours and many of them were sold out days before.[8] The ensemble was almost the same as on The Scarecrow Tour in 2008, with two changes. Andre Matos was replaced by ex-Helloween and current Unisonic singer Michael Kiske. With Kai Hansen also participating on this tour, there were a lot of instances when the two ex-Helloween members shared the same stage. The second change was the fact that Cloudy Yang was not part of the line-up.

Both tours were closely documented by Amanda Somerville on her YouTube channel.[9] The videos show various interesting backstage moments such as rehearsals, cancelled flights, or the ensemble travelling by a regular train.

"The Mystery of Time" (2012-13)[edit]

In August 2012 Sammet announced that "I didn‘t foresee how much I need Avantasia when I decided to finish this chapter of my life in 2011. After the worldwide success of the latest studio releases, an arena world tour that was sold out pretty much everywhere, collaborations with childhood heroes...I 'knew' that I had said everything I could possibly say in the name of Avantasia. But that's not what Avantasia is all about. I wanna create more great music, I wanna create more fantasy-worlds, the bigger and the more epic, the better. And listening to the material that I have created for this forthcoming chapter in the history of Avantasia, I know there is no way I am not going to do it! I have got the feeling and the certainty, that this is absolutely meant to happen and to be."[10]

"The Mystery World Tour" and possible last show (2013-14)[edit]

Avantasia's biggest world tour took place between April and August 2013. The tour consisted of 30 concerts and included 7 headlining festival appearances in Europe, one festival performance in Canada and three hour long shows in South America, Japan, Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Holland.[14][15]

According to Sammet: "I wanna put on the biggest thing you have ever seen, I wanna bring more vocalists, play longer shows, and just make it a giant Rock Opera. I love to headline festivals, you run over people in 90 minutes and kick ass. But I also like to do our own Avantasia indoor tour because we can make it much more Avantasia oriented and play almost three hours...It will be huge."[16]

With two shows remaining for the end of the tour, Tobias held a press conference in which he announced that Avantasia will make a headline performance at Wacken Open Air Festival in 2014. Tobias also suggested that this could be a farewell performance and that no further live Avantasia activities are planned for the near future:[17]

“

There won't be any further Avantasia activities, it'll be just a single show. I may be back with an idea and go for it somewhere in the distant future, I won't say farewell is forever this time, but I have no clue as to when and where and who would be able to join us and what it would sound and look like, if we'd ever do this again in a couple of years. So, get your tickets for Wacken 2014 cause it'll be your last chance to catch us, if not forever at least for some years. See you, T

”

In a May 2014 interview regarding Edguy's then latest album Space Police: Defenders of the Crown, Tobias said that The Mystery of Time would certainly have a sequel,[18] so the performance at Wacken Open Air might not be a farewell performance.